Final prep: over- the- break

This blog is going to be about what we were able to accomplish over the break. Over the break, we weren't able to get much done. We planned on meeting up with the cast but, this never happened. Instead we simply did more planning for the film and social media. This included searching for music and trying o decide if and what we should post. The poster we seems like more of a concept design than anything else since it is lacking the majority of the cast. So, we will only be using it as a temporary as a temporary profile picture. Hopefully, we should be able to meet up with the cast next week. Then, we can take some pictures for our official profile pictures and posters. We will also be able to plan out some shots we can film. For the most part, Eva did the majority of our group's work over break. The only main things we needed to get done was tittle design. Eva was able to complete that.

Soundtrack

 

Today we searched for the music we are going to use for our film. We need at least two songs. One is going to sound spooky and the other is going to have a cheerful, upbeat vibe. Our best bet would be to find a small artist and ask for their permission to use their OST. An alternative however would be to simply find a royalty- free track so we don't have to ask for permission. This will most likely be what we do. Each track will have to be at least two and a half minutes. Preferably, the tracks will go over two and a half minutes so they can be altered if needed.

Eva has found a happy song which is royalty free. This could act as the song that is played in the exposition. Although the song is only two minutes long, our short film is five minutes. This song seems like it could work, given it is unlikely that is will be played through the whole first half of the movie. If this song doesn't work however, I'll attempt to find another song we can use ( but it most likely will.)

Final prep for our film: marketing

 Today our group developed our website and social media accounts. This is a crucial step in the marketing process of our film. Eva did the majority of the setup for the website and social medias account. We now have our own twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube account for our movie. I planned and modelled for our first movie poster. The design is crude and put together quickly, but this is our first poster and it is more of a concept design than anything else. Our original plan was to get the whole cast together to take the photo for the poster, but this proved to be more challenging than previously predicted. Instead, we settled for a more simple design. This poster design was added to our movie's social  medias and website. For the photoshoot for our poster, we went down into the crawlspace where the majority of the movie is going to be filmed and took some medium shots and close ups. In the end, we chose the medium shot. For the lighting of the picture I held a lighter. This worked well because it illuminated my whole body but kept the majority of the background details out of the shot. Eva tuned up the photo and took out any impurities in the background so the poster would give off more of an ominous effect. Overall, these last couple of days have been very productive and we have made a lot of progress for our movie's preparation.

Storyboards

  Attached below is my storyboard. The storyboard gives a shot by shot of everything that plans to be on the screen. My group and I tried to incorporate different as many unique angles, movements and shots as possible. One of these shots I am excited to try is the POV shots. We used this shot last year in our, two minute film opening project and we thought it added a unique and interesting touch. One of my favorite scenes in the storyboard is when the last character to show up, Eddie scares the others in the house. I think it's a nice light-hearted addition to the overall plot. 

In our movies last year, we did not do anything in the horror aspect. I'm excited to try something new. Most of our videos last year had a lot of editing. This one is more composition-based. It will be most similar to our end of year project last year. The genre to the two-minute beginning was crime.

There are a few things that we should take in to consideration for the production of this film that we previously did not have to. One being the lighting. While we want the scenes to be dim, we don't want them to be dark or lacking detail. To do this, we can either, use flashlights to light up the shot, or we can film when the sun is going down. I believe we should film with flashlights because filming while the sun is down limits the time we can film and will cause uneven lighting through the shots. We will start filming in a few weeks

Planning

 This blog is the planning blog. That means it will have the following information: schedule, location, participants, health and safety, props, and costumes. To start of is the schedule. By the 13th of this month we will have the storyboard done. For filming we will allot a two week period from filming for the 14th through the twenty-third. The next step is editing which Eva will be doing for our group. Editing will take place from the twenty-third to the seventh of December. we will then reflect on our video and re-film and re edit for the remainder of December. The location of all of our filming will be at my house. We have a crawlspace which will be perfect for our short film. The participants we have gathered so far are:

Homeless person: Robert

Ally:Eva

James: Me

Connor: Not Determined

Eddie: Trent

The actor for Conor has not yet to be determined but should be easy to find because it has the shortest amount of screen time. For filming we will all take turns because there is not one scene were all the characters are together. Health and Safety is very important to us as a group. There is no big safety issues. We have a scene were we use a knife. For precaution we will either use a fake knife or put tape on the edge so no one will get hurt. We also will be filming in a basement so we will bring flashlights so we don't hit our heads. Overall we will just be extremely careful. For props we will have a knife, random, food and fake blood. The fake blood will be very similar to what we used last year for our end of year video. It will just be water, food coloring, and cornstarch. The costume for Ally, James, Connor, and Eddie are all just clothes you would wear to a party. For example, jeans, a t-shirt, and converse. The homeless person will be wearing dirty clothes that are covered in dirt and ripped. 

fake blood which was used in our previous film